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MERNAGH’S AROUND THE BIG EAST (2/15/2010)

by RAY MERNAGH

What a weekend huh?

I’ll start with the positive vibes.

Big Winners

Pitt — Got their 19th win with a heart-stopping come from behind classic over #4 West Virginia in not one, not two, but three overtimes. Jamie Dixon’s team continues to exceed all expectations except their own. Pitt is now 6-0 against team ranked in the top-5 nationally at Peterson Events Center and looks to have locked up their ninth straight NCAA Tournament bid — their RPI this morning is up to #14. The Panthers are doing it in typical Pitt style as well, with contributions from overlooked players such as Nas Robinson (a 6’4″ power forward) who snatched multiple offensive rebounds when Huggins had his team go into a 1-3-1 when they couldn’t stop the penetration of Travon Woodall and Brad Wanamaker. Gary McGhee also had a gigantic block and secured numerous defensive rebounds late, including the final one of the game (that he smartly gave up to Ashton Gibbs). When Gibbs hits shots, he was 6-13 from deep Friday night, Pitt can play with anyone. Look for rugged first-year post player JJ Richardson’s minutes to continue to increase as he’s been the answer lately inside off the bench. Next big test for the Panthers is Thursday nights road tilt against our next big winner.

Marquette — At this point, barring a total collapse by either team, if anyone besides Buzz Williams or Dixon wins coach of the year in the Big East it will be as big of a crock as some of the officiating we’ve seen this season already (more on that later). Marquette and South Florida played on Saturday evening in Milwaukee and the ex-Warriors tamed the upstart Bulls and Facebook aficionado Dominique Jones 62-53 to get their 16th win and move to 7-5 in the Big East. This was a game between two teams fighting, after tough starts, to breakthrough into the top-six in the conference. For the fifth straight game Marquette responded and for the second straight game USF did not. Buzz Williams texted me yesterday morning, the day after the win, to say that South Florida is “way better than us at every position and we are just a rag-tag bunch trying to hold on.” Williams is wiring his team’s hard drive with the philosophy that Marquette basketball is about every single player and coach in that locker room being one — a 15 or 16-headed monster if you will. After the loss at Syracuse (by 5 points) Williams texted leader Lazar Hayward to make sure he kept all his teammates on the plane after everyone else in the traveling party got off (Williams is always the last guy off). He told the players that for some reason they forgot who they were for stretches in the second half of that game. So he ordered no haircuts, including himself, because maybe with more hair it would block the bad thoughts from getting to their brains and they’d remember that they need each other, that they can’t play like a Syracuse and win because they aren’t as talented individually but together is the only way they’ll have success. Hokey? Sure, but it’s also a reinforcement — and Williams included himself in the equation — about what has brought them the success they’ve experienced this season. Perfect example from the USF win is Darius Johnson-Odom’s defense on Jones. ‘DJO’ is arguably Marquette’s best offensive player, especially if you’re talking about being able to go to the basket off the bounce and create, but he played 31 minutes Saturday night and took 5 shots while scoring 3 points. Johnson-Odom was locked into doing whatever he could, again with the help of his teammates (particularly Dwight Buykes), to disrupt Jones. Jones shot 6-21 and became frustrated enough to resort to what he’s done in previous seasons, but not this year, of taking some really bad shots. Johnson-Odom trusted his mates to pick up the offensive slack and they did. Zar Hayward (18 and 12) Mo Acker (an incredibly efficient 14 with 6 assists and no miscues) David Cubillan (11 and 3 with 1 turnover) and Jimmy Butler (15, 6, 2 dimes, 4 steals and no screw ups) all let DJO focus all his effort on getting into Jones. And it resulted in a W that pushes Marquette up even more into the tournament discussion while pushing USF further out of it.

Louisville — Things did not look good for the ‘Ville after getting hammered by St. John’s at MSG and heading up to Syracuse as the Orange’s play as of late had them resembling a team worthy of a #1 ranking. Louisville, before the game upstate, had fallen to 15-9 and 6-5 in league play and was looking at an potentially rough stretch — given the St. John’s result — to finish the regular season. However, Rick Pitino’s teams have a habit recently of handling the Orange and that continued as they beat Boeheim’s bunch for the fifth straight time. With the 66-60 win the Cards moved to 16-9 and 7-5. The key play in the game, besides a horrendous intentional foul call late in the game vs Syracuse, was a Wes Johnson drive on which the stud forward needed to go strong to the rim and either dunk or get fouled (or both). Instead Johnson chose to go underneath, avoid contact and attempt a reverse that had a degree of difficulty an Olympic gymnast would have a hard time pulling off. The Cards got key contributions from many (four guys were in double figures) and when they played through Samardo Samuels the result was often a wide-open look (see Samuels’ 4 assists with no turnovers). Now they’ll welcome a limping Notre Dame squad into Freedom Hall (Luke Harangody will probably miss this one with his knee) and then go to DePaul. Huge win for Louisville both resume-wise and confidence-wise.

Big Losers

The Officials — Once again they made themselves part of the equation when it wasn’t necessary. In the Syracuse/Louisville game veteran ref Tim Higgins got sold a bill of goods when Jerry Smith acted as if he’d been shot by Chris Joseph (or at least horse-collared) and went crashing to the deck. Higgins immediately crossed his arms and Jim Boeheim made the compassionate decision to let him live — the call was made right in front of the ‘Cuse bench. Louisville got 2 shots and the ball with 18 seconds left and Smith hit both to put them up 64-60. In the Providence loss at Villanova one official fouled Sharaud Curry (19 points) out with a technical after Curry had some words for him about his fourth foul. Not sure what Curry said, but short of accusing the guy of distasteful acts, the ref should have resisted the urge to T him up at that point. There were 8:00 left in a four-point game.

Georgetown — They lost at Rutgers –’ Nuff said. Props to Rutgers frosh Dane Miller, helluva play in crunch time on that tip in kid.

UConn — After giving Syracuse a battle to the wire, Jim Calhoun returned for a home game vs Cincinnati and the UConn team promptly laid an egg. A lot was made of the UConn record with George Blaney being a struggle, but they’d actually played better under Blaney than they has in the last few game before Calhoun left. Either way, this one has to be on the players — they’re too talented to only score 48 points — I don’t care how well the Bearcats defended. UConn will be fascinating to watch the rest of the way simply because you have no freaking clue what they’ll give you night in and night out. Which leads us to tonight’s action — and probably UConn’s last chance (if it hasn’t already passed them) to get on track

Tonight’s Action — UConn @ Nova

You’ve got to think Calhoun calling his team’s performance against Cincinnati an embarrassment, while true, was also done knowing he had this game coming up in a matter of hours. Nova is rolling along at 22-2 and 11-1 in the league. Something tells me this will be a battle.

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